Beads & Hurricanes

The rain continues to pour here in Florida. Lately, it seems like one day after another filled with flood watches and tornado warnings. The continuous showers plus the beginning of our hurricane season (which began June 1st) brings to mind memories of last September. We got hit hard by Hurricane Francis and then Jeanne, though Ivan also gave us more rain than we could handle. Along with damage all over the Treasure Coast, at my house, we were without power for a total of 18 days.

It was really an awful experience. Luckily, we were pretty prepared, not as prepared as we needed to be, but compared to many people in our area, we were in good shape. And, luckily, I had my beads to keep me sane. I didn’t have much light to work with, even during the day (unless I wanted to sit directly in the sun in 90+ degree heat with no chance of taking a shower afterwards). So, I piled my beads, scissors, beading needles, and thread, onto a tray, and positioned myself next to a large window, tray resting on my lap. As I strained to see the Delicas I wove together, I listened to a radio that was plugged into a car battery. A local radio station was on 24/7 with information about meals-ready-to-eat and free bags of ice.

Beading helped me feel like life was a little back to normal for me and like I was accomplishing something. In fact, many of the jewelry pieces I created are going to be in my next book, so maybe I did get something accomplished. I’m not looking forward to another hurricane season, but at least this time, we have a huge generator, and I know I’ll have better lighting when I have nothing else to do but bead.